https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MH5nXzGUqs Kal Penn has a new show on NBC Thursday nights at 9:30p and Sunnyside is about becoming a citizen in America. Five immigrants (Diana-Maria Riva, Joel Kim Booster, Poppy Liu, Moses Storm and Samba Schutte) from all over the World hire Penn to help them study for the citizenship test. Immigration is a very hot topic in America now.
When it comes to Penn, back in 2009 he actually took a job in the real White House in Washington, D.C. Which makes you wonder, will we see what is going on in America today on the sitcom? During the first episode, one of the characters was taken away by ICE and tonight they are going to try to get him out of the detention center. Which looks nothing like the ones we saw Mike Pence and Lindsey Graham raise their snotty little noses at when they went to visit the one in Texas.
Anyways, I am not going to talk about politics. Will Penn do that on his show? That was one of the questions I asked the actor recently at NBC’s Summer Press Tour Day at the TCAs.
Will the current political climate about immigration make its way on to Sunnyside?
Kal Penn: Well I think neither. I think because the idea of this is five years old and really like the topic of immigration goes back to our country’s founding, even before our country’s founding. So, it’s not like we’re, you know we are definitely not a reaction to anything. Obviously, it is topical but the show’s inception and its creation and how it’s come together has never been a reaction to anything. And I think if I use that Harold & Kumar metric that’s so important to me is we just want to make everybody laugh. And comedy can be a vehicle for bringing people together and I think that’s so special and it’s why I think a lot of us hold dear about making audiences laugh. Of course we all have our own beliefs, as do our audience, but I think if we do it right we’ll be a show that everybody can enjoy.
What type of research did he do for the show?
Kal Penn: So [Executive Producer] Matt [Murray]’s wife has worked in the immigration space before. We’ve certainly looked into how long does this process take? I think there was a question about what happens if and when all the characters get their citizenship? We’re like oh hopefully that’s a nine-year process for our story purposes, but in reality yeah it can take a really long time. There are hurdles to jump through, there are tests, there’s a lot of bureaucracy that kind of makes our experience at the DMV seem innocuous. So I think there’s a lot of flavor there based on the reality, but at the end of the day, you know, like the second episode is about Hakim, Samba’s character, and Diana and I thinking that he’s a hit man. So we do go off the rails purposely in a lot of ways that are just way more universal than where the characters came from.
Would Penn go back and work at the White House?
Kal Penn: Well, I just have my literal dream happening in having a chance to create and sell a show to NBC a comedy at that. So I loved the two years plus that I had you know in the Obama White House, but I’m even more thrilled that I have to chance to make people laugh right now.
Laughing is what we do on Sunnyside and we need more people to watch it. Since it is a chilly Thursday night, what better thing could you be doing than watching Sunnyside? There is nothing better, so watch it. I promise it will put you in a good place for your Friday.
If you watch New Amsterdam and you see a scene in the lobby of the hospital, then you will see a lot of people walking around. All of those people are paid background actors. How many are getting around $200 a day? According to Tyler Labine, there were 200 of them there on Sunday. Meaning that scene cost $40,000 in extas alone.
Now that we got that money aspect out of the way, let’s talk about how cool it is to see 200 actors at work. 200 people who are told to sit and wait and wait and wait and wait until they are needed. Then when they are ready, it is rush rush rush. Being an extra is fun.
If you have never seen New Amsterdam, then watch it tonight at 10p on NBC. It was my favorite new show last season and it is still just as good. If not better. It is a medical drama that is more about heart than the illness. Therefore, we are not going to think we have some rare disease after watching it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-lzWojCVOA Perfect Harmony is something to sing about. The NBC sitcom is back tonight at 8:30p and the show’s star Bradley Whitford is as happy as a hog in mud about it.
Now that Dr. Arthur Cochran (Whitford) has moved to Kentucky to teach the Second First Church of the Cumberlands choir how to win singing competitions, he has to get used to their ways. They are not like Yankees and he gets in trouble in blowing his car horn at someone. The shame.
Ginny (Anna Camp) decides to school him on their ways, but he does not learn his lesson. He winds up yelling at someone who was blocking traffic. Not just anyone, but the person who decides who performs when at ForkFest, the town’s big event. Now their choir is moved to a bad time slot.
Ginny tells him he needs to apologize so that they can get a better slot. Things go well until Arthur screws everything up again. Can he do anything to get them a better timeslot? All I will say is I said what I said in the first paragraph for a reason.
All of that while Ginny, her ex Wayne (Will Greenberg), their son Cash (Spencer Allport), Jax (Rizwan Manji), Dwayne (Geno Segers) and Adams (Tymberlee Hill) are trying to enjoy all that ForkFest has to offer like a messy pie-eating contest.
Each week, Arthur perfects their harmony and they try to bring harmony back into his life. Something he lost when his wife recently passed away.
Singing is a big part of the show and recently the cast, creator Lesley Wake Webster and producer Adam Anders revealed if singing is a big part of their lives to at the NBC Summer Press Day at the TCAs.
Does the cast really sing?
ADAM ANDERS: All of them use their real voice.
When did Geno start singing?
GENO SEGERS: I started out in high school. I had a relative who was a singer and convinced me to join the madrigal choir at my high school. And I did that for a year, and then I just sort of put it away.
When did Tymbelee join the church choir?
TYMBERLEE HILL: I did. I did, well, when I was young, from probably 5 to 12. My family is very much a part of the church choir. Everybody in my family sings, plays piano. And my grandmother taught music and was also the minister of music at our church. So I was a soloist for the youth choir and they would travel me all around for years from church to church to do competitions and to just be the guest. They have guest choirs at Baptist churches on Sundays. On fourth Sundays, you’ll have a guest choir come in. And so we would travel as guest choirs. And I sang all the way through maybe freshman year of college. But then there were so many people with such better voices than me, I just let it go. It’s really hard to be around people who it’s just their thing, yeah. So I sing for work, but it’s not, like, my thing anymore.
Which cast member is the rapper?
ADAM ANDERS: Yeah. It’s really an amazing cast, actually, even musically. You know, obviously they’re amazing actors, but there’s a lot we can work with here. It’s really exciting for me because they’re coming from such different places musically too. I mean, Rizwan Manji is a rapper. I don’t know if you knew that.
Does Bradley Whitford sing?
BRADLEY WHITFORD: I was in musicals and there was a little singing going on at Juilliard. I grew up playing an instrument. I sang. I grew up playing the viola. ADAM ANDERS: I’ll get you to sing at some point.
When did Geno develop his deep voice?
GENO SEGERS: Well, I just woke up one morning and scared the hell out of my mama. You know, she didn’t know what to think, and she literally wanted to know who that man was in my bedroom wanting Fruit Loops. I was about 12 years old, and I woke up one morning, and I couldn’t talk. She made me some grits. She’s a Southern mother. She made me some oatmeal, rather. And then the next morning, I couldn’t talk. She made me some more oatmeal with honey and nuts and cinnamon and nutmeg. Thought that would be good for my throat, she would say. Then another morning, she woke up and said I woke up, and she said, “What do you want for breakfast, baby?” I said, “Fruit Loops, Mama.” And from that day on, she just tells that joke at every family gathering.
Who is Bradley’s character based on?
LESLEY WAKE WEBSTER: I will answer that one. I grew up singing in church choir, going to church. My grandfather, who Bradley’s character is modeled on, was a choir director by trade, and he went to Westminster Choir College, which is a fancy, fancy chorale college — he would always impress upon me — and at the end of his life, he was living in rural Kentucky. My grandmother had passed away, and he got to a very dark place. He was surrounded by people who weren’t like the people he had gone to school with. He was a little bit of a snob and an outsider. But the thing that brought him sort of back to life and gave him meaning was directing this little choir, and he was standing in a circle with people singing who had radically different beliefs and had been raised differently, but together they made something really beautiful, and that’s really what we want to bring to this. Yes, it’s set in a church, but it’s really about people who are each other’s family and find each other. And they do that through music and through friendship, and my experience in various church choirs and glee clubs has been it is really hard to dislike other people if you’re standing in a circle singing with them.
Who did he base his character on?
BRADLEY WHITFORD: Yeah. Yeah. There is a certain kind of beloved theater professor who I had, who was not a snob but always looked like kind of an unmade bed, and so I’m sort of going for that. I mean, I’ve had a lot of exposure to I know a lot of people in academia, so I know that sort of, kind of pretentious mindset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijqN7IOJatY Last week, we got to meet lawyers Elijah Strait (Jimmy Smits) and his estranged daughter, Sydney (Caitlin McGee) on Bluff City Law. Tonight at 10p, they take on a case close to their hearts.
Back when Sydney was a little girl, she used to take horse riding lessons on a farm. That farm is now in trouble of being sold because of a seed that contiminated their land. The business behind the seed knows that their product gets mixed in with other people’s crops. When it does, they ask the farmers to pay them back for using their seed. Several other farmers have either sold their land to the corporation or took them to court and loss.
The Straights are not going to let that happen to their friend. Therefore, they are going to take on her case that has never been won. Can they be the first lawyers to win the case?
All while Sydney is dealing with the fact that she just found out that her father fathered another child from an affair. Will she accept her younger brother, Emerson (Stony Blyden), who works at the firm as a paralegal? Will she forgive her dad? Did her mother know?
I have to say, when I watched the first episode, I was not blown away by the series. However, after watching tonight’s show, I added the legal drama to my season pass. They take on interesting cases, ones that make you think. It is not the normal stuff everyone else does, but cases that really makes a difference in our World. Then you mix in some father/daughter drama and you have a drama that has you hooked. Case closed.
That is just how I see the show. A few weeks ago at the NBC Summer Press Day at the TCAs, Jimmy Smits and Caitlin McGee along with Executive Producers Michael Aguilar, Dean Georgaris and David Janollari talked about Bluff City Law.
Why do legal dramas work?
DEAN GEORGARIS: Part of it, I think, is one of the most remarkable things about our nation is our legal system. We take it for granted, but as a country, we have a forum where we come together, and we can air our grievances. We can decide what we believe in society is right and wrong, and frankly, over time, the legal field is where we evolve as a society, where we decide, “You know what? This was okay for 100 years. Now it’s not.” I think police dramas, like medical dramas, these are really questions that are fundamental to the human experience. I suspect that’s why they seem to be as timeless. MICHAEL AGUILAR: My father’s an attorney, so I grew up in a house where the law was an art form. And I think it gives us an opportunity to explore subjects like justice and fairness and what we all share, the human values we all share, so I think that’s why it endures.
What type of cases can we expect?
DEAN GEORGARIS: Yeah. I mean, the pilot cases were sort of loosely inspired by the Monsanto case. We’ll be taking on I don’t want to say were ripped from the headlines, because I think it’s almost a little has a connotation to it, but issues like free speech, issues like privacy, these are things that we’re all talking about right now. Frankly, it’s a really interesting time because these definitions are changing. Every week we’ll be taking those on and, by the way, sometimes from a more comedic perspective. If it’s all drama, I think it doesn’t feel real. If you don’t laugh every now and then, it’s not representative of life. MICHAEL AGUILAR: Yeah. And some of the cases are also very human stories and very local Memphis stories as well, and they dip into the culture of Memphis, which is incredibly rich.
Why did they cast Jimmy Smits?
DAVID JANOLLARI: And I will say, on the page, the character of Elijah was incredibly nuanced and incredibly complex, and we knew that we needed to have someone with amazing gravitas and kind of command of leading this show in the role. We were thrilled when Jimmy read the script and was as excited about it as we were.
Was it easy for Smits to step back into the courtroom again since he played a lawyer on L.A. Law from 1986-1992?
JIMMY SMITS: No. There was a lot of brushing up. That was 20 something years ago. But you try to take the best from the experiences that you had and know that this particular guy that I’m doing now is a lot different and doesn’t have the kind of bounce in the same way, and, luckily, we were able, besides having a really great pilot script that is a wonderful jump off point for all these characters and this relationship, we had some really great technical people that were able to work with us that are attorneys there, and a particular duo that have the same type of father and daughter relationship. So that was really helpful as well.
How the producers got father and daughter lawyers to work as consultants on the show.
MICHAEL AGUILAR: Yeah. It’s actually a funny story. We were looking at an office space that an attorney has and started to chat with him. He had no interest in us shooting in his offices, as, of course, he shouldn’t. He’s got legal files everywhere. And we started to chat with him and he said, “So what’s your show about?” And I said, “Well, it’s a father daughter story.” And he said, “Well, you know, my daughter just started working here.” And I sort of paused and said, “Well, that’s probably a little complicated.” He said, “It’s very complicated.” And at that point we just couldn’t stop talking and it was hours. He’s joined us on our show. I mean, he sort of is, in a lot of ways, the Elijah Strait of Memphis. He’s an incredible attorney, a really generous person, and he’s been working with all of our cast, but particularly Jimmy and Caitlin. And his daughter has as well, and she’s brilliant and they have a similar dynamic. So it’s been an incredibly special relationship.
Why did they base the show in Memphis?
MICHAEL AGUILAR: We’re huge fans of “The Firm.” I don’t know that it was necessarily in our thought process, but I do love that movie. I think the great thing about Memphis is that it’s a big city that gives us a lot of opportunity but has a small- town feel, so you really believe that someone like Elijah Strait could be the pinnacle of justice and a real war hero and could have this firm that could make a real change, make a real difference and change the city.
Are they shooting the series in Memphis?
MICHAEL AGUILAR: We are shooting in Memphis entirely. And there aren’t a lot of soundstages, so it’s actually kind of an advantage. We get to shoot on location, which gives it even more authenticity. We’ve converted a couple of buildings into some of our sets, and we’re continuing to do that. We’re growing the infrastructure, which we’re excited about. I mean, we’ve all fallen in love with Memphis, and it’s not an understatement. I mean, I can’t sort of the history of the place is sort of in the soil, and the people there are so generous and have really welcomed us. So we want to build a film community there. They have some infrastructure, and they’ve certainly are really trying to help us build it. We’ve brought some people in to help train and try to hire as many locals as we can.
NBC is known for Must See TV on Thursdays and this season they are not disappointing. They start it off at 8p with Superstore. The season premiere picks up a few hours after the season finale when Mateo (Nico Santos) was taken away by ICE.
Jonah (Ben Feldman) has gotten everyone together from Cloud 9 for a vigil for Mateo. Since no one knows what to do, they sing a song that is perfect for them. You have to see it, to believe. That and to find out that Lauren Ash, who plays Dina, can really sing. You go girl.
Now, it is time for everyone to get back to work. Corporate has sent over a new worker to replace Mateo and everyone hates Glen with one “n”. Glenn (Mark McKinney) with two “n’s” hates him the most. Therefore, when they come up with a way to get rid of him, he is all for it.
Meanwhile, Dina is still mad at Garrett (Colton Dunn) for letting her birds accidentally go free, so she continues to torture him. He feels bad, but that is not good enough for her.
Talking about couples, Sandra (Kaliko Kauahi) wants to let everyone know that she is engaged but no one will let her talk.
When it comes to talking, Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) has not spoken to her BFF since he was taken away. It is just too hard for her. Amy (America Ferrera) decides to kidnap her co-worker and take her to see their friend. Will she go inside?
All of this leads to a moment that will have everyone afraid, very afraid.
If working at a Big Box store was as fun as they make it look on Superstore, we would all be working at one!
https://youtu.be/U-BaSkJV_Ok
Then at 8:30p, Bradley Whitford is back for another comedy on NBC. Perfect Harmony is something to sing about.
Arthur Cochran (Whitford) is the former chair of the music department at Princeton. After his wife died, he pretty much lost his will to live. He returns to her hometown to bury in her in the cemetery at the church she loved, but he is told there is no room. Therefore, he has come to confront them to let her in.
On the way there, the very drunk professor stops in front of another church with a choir rehearsing. They are so bad that he goes in to tell all of them how awful they are. When he is done, he passes out.
The next day, when he wakes up, and they ask him to coach their choir. He doesn’t want to do it, but then he gets his reason. Now he has to work on them to make them all singers whether they like what he says or not.
Ginny (Anna Camp) is a single mom, who is a mother to the group. She is also just so gosh darn nice. Adams (Tymberlee Hill) is not that nice, so she does not want to take Arthur’s advice. Jax is adopted and he is the Kumbaya one of the group. Wayne (Will Greenberg) takes a lot of crap Arthur, but he has potential. Although, not as much as Shep (Geno Segers) who has the deepest voice you will ever hear.
They are a dysfunctional bunch, but together they make beautiful music. That is why this and Carol’s Second Act are tied for my favorite new comedies with Sunnyside in a close second place.
Then at 9p, The Good Place begins its final season. Michael (Ted Danson) and Eleanor (Kristen Bell) are continuing to welcome the four new humans to The Good Place. They know that these four individuals are there to antagonize them. However, they have to work through it to save the human race.
How will Tahani (Jameela Jamil) deal with her gossip columnist arch-nemesis? Jason wants to be with Janet (Manny Jacinto) but she told him no because the experiment is too important. Meanwhile, Janet is busy dealing with all the new people’s request. Especially, the new guy who is there to torture Eleanor. She has enough problems now that Chidi’s (William Jackson Harper) memory has been erased and he does not remember her.
While things are not going smoothly for them, things are going better off down in the Bad Place. Or are they?
You don’t want to miss as our Fab Four tries to acclimate the new kids into their world with a big old party.
A sad party is happening over here because I don’t want this show to end.
https://youtu.be/sk_2uEoI1i8
Finally at 9:30p, Kal Penn is an elected official in Sunnyside. Scratch that, he is an impeached city councilman for Sunnyside in Queens, NY.
When Garrett Modi (Penn) first ran for office, he had dreams of helping the community. Fifteen years later, he is living in his office because his girlfriend kicked him out, he has no money and he has just been fired from his job. He moves in with his sister, Mallory (Kiran Deol) and she tells him to get a job.
He gets a call to meet some people at a bar to help them pass their citizenship test so they can become Americans. When all of his contacts fails, he decides to help them himself. Luckily, two of his students are really rich, so they throw money his way.
Those two students are siblings, Jim Hoa (Joel Kim Booster) and Mel Lin (Poppy Liu). We do not know where they are from because they won’t say. While they have lots of money, Griselda (Diana-Maria Riva) does not. The Dominican has so many jobs, no one can possibly count them all. Hakim (Samba Schutte) is a taxi driver from Ethiopia. Finally, there is Brady (Moses Storm), he just found out he is from Moldovia and that he was not born in America. His mother brought him here when he was two and she never told him. After he gets caught, the government told him to become a citizen or go back. Since he does not know where Moldavia is, he opts to become an American. Which is why he needs Garrett’s help.
Each week, Garrett will work with them to make sure they get to live the America Dream. Granted the brother and sister are already living all of their dreams and most other people’s. Can Garrett teach them all about the good ole USA?
You are going to want to watch the show that reminds us that we are all immigrants in America. You don’t have to be born here to love America. You just have to live hear to learn you love it! Like we will love this show.
